Elana Walters

Elana Walters is a fourth-year studying English and Creative Writing on the publishing track. She has a minor in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality studies, has Honors in the major, and has been on the Dean’s List in every semester she’s been at the University of Iowa. She’s originally from New York, and she came to the University of Iowa because of the phenomenal writing program. 

During her time as a student, Elana has been dedicated to the literary magazine community on campus. She began her first semester as the Editor-in-Chief of Ink Lit and went on to work with the oldest undergraduate literary magazine, earthwords, in which she began as a nonfiction editor and now has her current position on the executive team as a managing editor. She has also served as a campus tour guide for the Office of Admissions and an English ambassador for the Department of English in which she advocates for and promotes the university to prospective students and their families.  

In her professional career, Elana has held a variety of internship positions in the publishing industry. Her first internship began with Sherocomics, a comic book company that specializes in women of color superheroes. She then went on to intern with the prestigious literary agency, Writers House, and this past summer, she interned at HarperCollins Publishers with their imprint, William Morrow. As an aspiring writer, Elana has been published in a handful of on-campus and off-campus magazines. Her work has appeared in Litro Magazine, Open Ceilings, OFIC Magazine, and NYU’s, Caustic Frolic. Her dream is to continue making a difference in the publishing industry and to be a published author.

Sophia Considine

Sophia Considine (she/her) is a fourth-year English and Creative Writing major at the University of Iowa with minors in Communication Studies and News and Media Literacy. She is very involved in student life, being a university honors student, a part of ATI, Hallyu at Iowa, and the Executive Editor of earthwords: the undergraduate literary review. Sophia hopes to merge into the publishing industry after graduation and eventually be an editor championing for diverse and exciting romance, fantasy, and coming-of-age YA novels.

When Sophia began her freshman year, she immediately immersed herself in the literary community on campus. She joined three literary magazines—Fools, snapshots, and Cave Writing Magazine—as a writing assistant, artistic editor, and beta reader, respectively. Additionally, Sophia became an editor for the 6th annual Iowa Chapbook Prize, where she championed a poetry collection titled, Through My Fingers to the Deep by Josie Wulf. That was where she found her passion for book publishing. Besides her literary endeavors during university, Sophia danced at the bi-annual Multicultural Showcase with Hallyu at Iowa, worked part-time as a host and server at Orchard Green Restaurant and Lounge, and was the Vice President, Secretary, and Membership Officer of ATI for the 2023-2024 school year. Recently, she took up volunteer internships with the Iowa Youth Writing Project and Bookstr.

Sophia is grateful for the English department for the opportunity to produce the 2024 edition of Out of Iowa. She would especially like to thank Daniel Khalastchi for his recommendation, Loren Glass and Tara Atkinson for their guidance and communication, and Elana Walters for being a wonderful and reliable coworker.